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TagsJoins with 9 other governors, federal government
Gov. Chris Christie has signed on to a memorandum of understanding with the federal government and other East Coast governors to promote the development of offshore wind power, his office announced Tuesday.
The agreement, which establishes an Atlantic Offshore Wind Energy Consortium, is an effort to help facilitate federal-state cooperation for commercial wind development on the Outer Continental Shelf off of the Atlantic coast.
"The environmental tragedy in the Gulf dramatically demonstrates the need to create safe and reliable ways to produce, distribute and use energy," Christie said in a statement. "Developing and investing in renewable energy resources such as wind power are key to the future economic growth of New Jersey and the Atlantic Coast Region and I am pleased to work with my colleagues as we explore this important energy market."
In addition to Christie, the agreement was signed by the governors of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina.
The consortium will attempt to develop a plan to establish the priorities, goals, specific recommendations and steps for achieving the objectives outlined in the agreement.
Several wind energy projects for the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf have been proposed for East Coast states, including New Jersey. Christie said the state is well-positioning to tap into the industry's enormous potential, creating thousands of manufacturing, construction and operations jobs of the future. Three of the first five "interim policy leases'' approved by the federal government to explore offshore wind projects are for tracts located off the coast of New Jersey.
"This is a very exciting development for New Jersey,''state Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin said. "It opens the door of economic opportunity, allowing us to lure companies that manufacture the components of wind turbines, creating green jobs to harness the power of nature and provide our residents with a renewable energy supply.''
— TOM HESTER SR., NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
Second, the lessons of the Gulf oil blowout have nothing to do with wind power development.
The lessons to be learned relate to lax federal environmental oversight and abuse of private corporate power.
BP got a waiver from environmental review.
With Executive Order #2, Christie is seeking to expand the use of waivers and expedite environmental review, so he's learned nothing.
BP controlled decisions and took risks that elevated their profits above health and safety. CHrisite seeks to privatize more decisions, scale back DEP oversight, and elevate the role of economics via cost beenfit analysis, so her's learned nothing.
Why does this site continue to write stories that transscribe the Governor's press releases without any rebuttal comment or factual context? That is very poor journalism.
GULF OIL TRAGEDY & CAPE WIND HAVE A LOT IN COMMON -- KENNETH SALAZAR AND THE CORRUPT MMS. Remember, governor/candidates, that we constituents are judging by the company you keep. Are you sure you want pictures with the salaCZAR OF ECOCIDE?